sidering is kept up in a way different from that which takes place in the vegetable kingdom, though in some respects analogous to it. Here, too, the powers of reproduction are with obvious design unequally distributed, being most copiously bestowed on those species which are either most useful to man, or most harmless in their own nature, or least capable of defending themselves. Were not this the case, animals of prey, whose species are numerous, and are to be found in all the classes of animated nature, from the lowest to the highest, would soon destroy the more helpless kinds, and reduce the various orders of beings to a few of nearly equal strength and prowess in the various genera. Among beasts, the lion and tiger, for example, would desolate the tropical regions; the wolf would reign paramount in the temperate zone; and the arctic bear would over-run the regions bordering on the poles; till nothing would be left for them to devour but creatures of their own species. Among birds, the eagle, the vulture, and the condor, would each assert the terrible powers of its nature, till the other feathered tribes, in their respective localties, had been exterminated; and as to fishes, the enormous whale,* and the rapacious shark, each of which devour the inferior tribes by hundreds at a mouthful, would quickly divide the desolated ocean between them.

The very fact, therefore, that, notwithstanding the existence of such formidable enemies, the other tribes of animated beings not only survive but abound, is a proof that the Author of Nature has provided sufficient checks to their power and rapacity. Of quadrupeds alone, from 800 to 1000 species are known to exist, and as we descend in the scale to the lower genera, their species proportionally increase, till among the insect and microscopic tribes, they become almost innumerable. If this be the case with regard to species, how would the mind be

* The Greenland whale is supposed to live only on medusæ or shrimps, but the catchalot, and its varieties, are exceedingly voracious.

overwhelmed with the immensity of the subject, were it to attempt to estimate the number of individual existences in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Let us recognize and admire the designing mind which has with such wonderful skill adjusted the balance of nature, and fitted it to the condition of man in his fallen state. It is impossible not to be struck with the analogy which runs through all the departments of organized existence, from the highest to the lowest, in this as well as in other instances. We see every where a superabundant power of reproduction counteracted and balanced by what may be justly called antagonist powers. Among these opposing forces we find voracity and famine every where, excessive heat and periodical storms in tropical countries, excessive cold during the winter of the temperate and frigid regions, each in its own manner and its own place, doing the necessary work of destruction.

390

FOURTEENTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

WINTER NOT MONOTONOUS.-BOUNDLESS VARIETY OF NATURE.

THE winter landscape has been accused of monotony; and certainly all Nature has at this season a less animated and varied aspect than at any other. Unless when it is sprinkled over with hoar-frost, or covered with a cold mantle of snow, the surface of the earth is arrayed

in a bleak and faded hue. The woods have now lost the variegated foliage, that had already ceased to be their ornament; and the branches of the trees, with their "naked shoots, barren as lances,” have one uniform appearance of death and decay. The howling of the longcontinued storm, and the few faint bird-notes, still heard at intervals in the thickets or hedges, are monotonously mournful. The devastation of the earth, and the sounds that seem to bewail it, are general and unvaried. Such, at a cursory glance, appear to be the aspect and tone of our winter scenery. But the keenly observant eye discovers, even at this desolate season, and in the midst of seeming monotony, that endless variety which characterizes every province of creation. On close inspection, indeed, all we behold is varied. Whatever be the season, and wherever lie the scene of our observation, though many things are apparently similar, yet none are exactly or really so. At certain times and places, the mutual resemblances between all the common objects of sense, all that solicits the eye or the ear in the landscape, may be so numerous and striking, that a feeling of monotony ensues; groups of mournful sights and sounds may, in the dead of the year, successively impress us with a sense of melancholy, and incline us to set a limit to the usual prodigality of nature; but yet true wisdom, aided by quick and active observation,

easily draws the dull veil of uniformity aside, and reveals to the admiring eye boundless diversity even in the ravaged and gloomy scenery of winter.

Are the woods so uniformly dead as, on a first survey, they appear? The oak, the ash, the beech, and most of our forest trees, have lost their varied foliage; but, with the exception of the larch, the numerous varieties of the fir and the pine, retain their leaves, and variegate the disrobed grove with their unfading verdure. In the woodland copse, or lonely dell, the beautiful holly still gladdens the eye with its shining and dark-green leaves. Nor are our shrubberies without their living green. The laurel and the bay defy the blasts of winter, and continue to shelter and beautify our dwellings. The flowers have not all vanished. One of the fairest, and seemingly one of the most delicate of them all, the Christmas rose, spots the garden or shrubbery with its bloom, unhurt by the chilling influences of the season. Before the severity of winter is over, the snow-drop emerges from the reviving turf, the lovely and venturous herald of a coming host. Thus, in the period of frost, and snow, and vegetable death, the beauty of flowers is not unknown; but rather what survives or braves the desolating storm, is doubly enhanced to our eyes by the surrounding dreariness and decay.

And are the atmospherical phenomena of this season monotonous or uninteresting? Independently of the striking contrast they present to those of summer and autumn, they are of themselves grandly diversified. The dark and rainy storm careers over the face of the earth, till the flooded rivers overflow their banks, and the forest roars like a tempestuous sea. The hoar-frost spangles the ground with a white and brilliant incrustation, or the snow, falling softly, covers the wide expanse of mountain, and wood, and plain, with a mantle of dazzling purity. Then the dark branches of the trees, bending under a load of white and feathery flakes, have a picturesque aspect, and seem to rejoice in the substitute for

their lost foliage. And how fantastically beautiful are the effects of frost! Water is transmuted into solid forms, of a thousand different shapes. The lake, and even the river itself, becomes a crystal floor, and the drops of the house-eaves collect into rows of icicles of varying dimensions, differently reflecting and refracting the rays of the mid-day sun. The earth is bound in magical fetters, and rings beneath the tread. keen, yet not insufferably cold. days, succeeded by nights that unveil the full glory of the starry firmament, are intermingled with magnificent tempests, that sweep over the land and sea, and make the grandest music to the ear that is attuned to the harmonies of nature.

and

The air is pure Calm and clear frosty

Variety seems to be a universal attribute of creation. It is stamped upon the heavens, the earth, and the sea. The stars are all glorious; but "one star differeth from another star in glory." The sun eclipses them all; and the moon reigns among them like their queen. The earth is covered with numberless mountains and hills, thick as waves on the ocean, and more wonderfully diversified. From the tiny hillock to the cloud-piercing peak, no two eminences are wholly alike in shape, or size, or in any single quality. What valley or plain, what tree, or flower, or leaf, or blade of grass, is, in all points, similar to another? Search the whole world, and you will find no pair of any of these created things exact counterparts to each other, in regard to weight, colour, structure, figure, or any other essential or accidental property. The animal world is as endlessly diversified. Not only is the distinction between the various genera and species wide and impassable, but between the individuals of each species, no perfect similarity exists. Twins are commonly most like each other; but yet we are at no loss to distinguish between them. Even when we take two parts, however apparently alike, of two individuals of the same species, we find the same diversity. The variety observable in the human coun